September has been an incredible whirlwind of hepatitis B outreach activities. I’ve been out at events every weekend this month. Finished with another Vietnamese screening (we held one in partnership with the Vietnamese Reach for Health Coalition last weekend, which was very successful!) today. This one was held at a Vietnamese church, and it ran smoothly despite less than expected numbers attending. However, UP did a good job setting this up and gaining the church’s buy-in, so I’m proud of her work for this summer.

In retrospect, I believe that in order for our outreach projects to be more successful, we’ll need to return to the partnered education and screenings instead of trying to squeeze ourselves into the Sunday church schedule. Unless we have the entire church’s buy-in, it is difficult to incorporate our education and screening program.

I just heard of two new high school hepatitis B awareness groups that will be forming from students who attended our Youth Leadership Conference in August. It makes me really excited to hear that we are able to inspire these young leaders to take action in their communities.

Social Media FunI have been fiddling with various social media tools / widgets this past week. One of my particular favorites is the introduction of TimesPeople on NYTimes.com where I can directly tweet, facebook, digg, etc. articles that I find intriguing. Plus, I can also recommend articles, and these articles will show up on my TimesPeople profile where those who follow me can read about my suggestions. I think this is a fantastic move for NYTimes to make the news (especially their news articles) much more accessible to others through peer dissemination. You can find me under the handle missamyyu if you ever decide to you use it.

Posterous has also been a newly acquired social media toy that I’m learning how to use. So bear with me as I test out various posterous features.

Had a fun time teaching BC about Twitter, and had a hilarious exchange about retweeting, and how retweeting only applies to those who are alive. [Note, he’s an author, so that is how we got to talking about retweeting dead individuals like Ernest Hemingway.]

Of InterestTried my hand at mashed cauliflower (the healthier alternative to mashed potatoes) the other day. Tasted pretty good despite my overuse of butter.

Thanks for reading today. I cant believe it is already past mid-August! Been trying to wade through my work email after YLC and the CDC conference – man, they don’t stop coming! Alright, onto the good stuff:

Hepatitis B and the Jade Ribbon Campaign
The past two days have been meeting days, and I have had the opportunity to work some really great people. Of note, today, I was invited to the Vietnamese Reach for Health Coalition meeting by CW, and was impressed by the dedication and influence of many of those who were in the room. The people there are all incredibly committed to improving the lives of those in their communities, and I really want to express how much it inspired me today to see them all in that room. There were familiar faces, but there were many new ones, and I’m looking forward to learning more about what they do and how the ALC can partner with them to reach the Vietnamese community.

Also worked on some Jade Ribbon Campaign design ideas for a well-known Asian bakery on the west coast, so hopefully the product ideas will be inspiring to them! Will share when things are more finalized.

Today, in the office, we took some cute pictures of our Jade Ribbon Campaign cows (we do one animal each year in accordance to the Chinese Zodiac – and this year is the ox). I thought you’d enjoy seeing them. They were actually inspired through a cow twitpic contest – thanks to CL and TC for rounding up the cows for these photos:

Jade Ribbon Campaign Cows and the Jade Ribbon!

Jade Ribbon Campaign Cows encircling the Jade Ribbon

Disappointment with Stanford San Francisco ClubI just learned that the Stanford San Francisco Club is endorsing Jenny McCarthy’s group that says that vaccines cause autism in children. I am just so incredibly disappointed and rather appalled that a Stanford group would endorse such a organization that touts such non-evidence based information and misinforms well-meaning parents. More on this tomorrow. I’m a little too tired to express things coherently. Also – if you’re a felow Stanford alumn, and would like to hear more and are interested in what you can do, let me know.